Reading The Pictures: Is The New York Times Effing Kidding With This Grant Park Election Night Preview?

If this was coming from Michelle Malkin or Steve Schmidt, even, I wouldn't be surprised, but ... the NYT had the gall to run this photo from Grant Park in '68 its election night preview. (If you click the photo, by the way, you'll see the actual full size on NYT.com. It also appears on A18 of the print edition.)

I'm just stunned.

Is this any way for the country's most influential media organization to set the table for a Grant Park opening night of America's first African-American-led administration?

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(image: UPI)

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Comments

[InofTouch]

Read what the picture said with the words and there was nothing wrong with that and BTW How dose this suppost to scare me

[Stephen]

Grant Park will be the scene of a great party. It will help balance out some of the scenes from 1968 which should be remembered as a time when idealism came up against Democratic pragmatism.

For months I have been having fantasies about the inauguration and state dinners to follow as a President who doesn't check out at 9 p.m. and an elegant First Lady assemble a glittering international rainbow of people from Oprah to Pink to Sting, to Sonia Ghandi, and lead off the dancing with a stately waltz which blends into fox trots, and morphs into Chicago style Lindy, line dancing, The Obamas, the Gordon Browns, Sarkozy and Bruni, leading the way. Joy will return to Mudville!

[KathyinCT]

Get this around to everyone you know -- the pix, the issue and need to respond.

Write to their ombudsman -- nytimes.commes.com

He's quickest route to poke them into what I have just written to demand -- an apology!!! In tomorrow's paper.

I asked if their message was Obama win = riot, or Chicago events always end in violence.

And inquired why they didn't run it side by side with pix of folks in tuxedos at the luxurious Biltmore, just to make their point brutally clear.

Try phoning or FAXint Times also. They need to be bombarded.

[GhostNyc]

I looking at that picture as a warning of the loss of hard work and preserverance of so many people who over the last 20 months have become HOPEFUL and INSPIRED to do more for their country than they ever thought possible. From young voters just being introduced to the system to older voters who got their passions reignited by what has become the most exciting presidential race in generations.

STAY FOCUSED. STAY CALLING, TALKING, PUSHING PEOPLE TO GET TO THE POLLS. Vote, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE...IT IS YOUR RIGHT AS AN AMERICAN..­....VOTE

[Dana D]

The NYT has sunk to its lowest and apparently is competing for the Inquirer's audience. What crap! Sensationalism at its worst. Shame on them.

And, I've just cancelled my subscription!!!

[DrMidlife]

The Whole World is Watching

Grant Park, Chicago, 1968: hordes of young VietNam protesters clashed with police at the Democratic Convention. Wires stretched across streets to mow down protesters who fled. The young shouted across barricades, in a chant: "the whole world is watching." The TV-owning world was about to see that America, home of the golden boys from World War II, home of Elvis and Jesse Owens, home of Lincoln, was also a home to fascism just like Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain, Mao's China. America was not as good as the world thought we were.

Grant Park, Chicago, 2008: hordes of supporters amass, hopefully, to celebrate America's first black president. A different world watches, this time, on the internet, on the TV. America, who now answers to no one, who invades without sanction, who abandons its flooded own, who tortures, who debases its own Constitution, who led the collapse of the global economy, it cannot be true that this America will self-correct. When America sneezes, it gives the world pneumonia, and it has been in a sneezing fit for eight years. America, immune from sanction, freely sanctions others for human rights abuses, for weapons, for rigged elections, for injustice. Can America choose this Obama, this scholar, this community organizer, this gifted and uplifting orator, instead of the usual oil industry shyster programmed by spin doctors? Can it be that America is not as bad as the world thinks we are?

The Whole World is Watching

[UWNBM]

hopefully.­..

This is the operative word...
It looks as though indy, older voters are breaking heavily for McCain.
Young voters are NOT turning out in numbers that could help Obama...
The only ones turning out in Obama's demographic are African Americans.­..still, at 13-17% of the population, even a 99% turnout for Obama will not be enough to get him through if other voters don't come out for him in the necessary numbers.

[Gidster]

Except that none of the exit polls, the early voter turn out or projections actually support your statement.

the aggregate polls suggest that Obama has more than enough electoral votes to win.
If turnout is good, not even rigged voting machines and GOP vote suppression and gading can turn enough voters away.

Get out there and vote!!

[kikimae]

Wow, you are lost. Denial doesn't work.

[Sexyjade5055]

It will be a positive environment on November 4th as all Obama rallies have been.

Any protesters seen downtown Chicago should just be ignored because America will be celebrating the election of the 44th President of the United States of America...­.BARACK OBAMA!!!

[UWNBM]

Election Day, after all the polls are in, will determine who is President.­..if Obama wins, fine, but counting one's chickens before they hatch is a serious problem...­Dems have been down this road before...K­erry was up by 6 at this same time...Gor­e was up, also...do NOT take anything for granted,

[Gidster]

Remember more than 100,000 votes were lost and not counted in 2004!

VOTE!

[army193]

Corporate UN-American has no plan to let up...They have to much to lose but it will happen.

[PNOGUY]

I certainly wouldn't want to see Grant Park if McCain wins!

[Mahi Joe]

You got that right.

[TheAndrew]

I state the odds are better than 1 in 3 the Repubicans have a vote-fraud or other plan in place to prevent Obama being declared the winner. I think they will do anything, anything to stop it.

[robotfog]

The Neo-York Times?

[fightorleave2]

Thanks for all you do. BAGNews is a wonderful website.

[Hazelnut]

While I was around in 1968, I was a little kid and have no first hand memory of the events in this photo, though of course, I have read about it since. This photo is really scary. Does anyone reading this have any idea what happened to the poor guy clinging to the post?
I agree with Michael Shaw that for the NYT to publish this now is a very bad idea.

[tiger313]

This calls for letting the NYT how you feel about this blatant racist propaganda. [e-mail].

[DEMTRUPATRIOTS]

ok...not for nothing ..but....h­ow is this racist...a­ll the people in the pic are white

[dontomas]

I rarely disagree with a Huff Blogger but I just do not see this NYT article/photo as being over the top.
I mean they are pointing out that its going to be a big celebration (wish I was there) and there is some danger with so many people there that an Obama loss would set things off. I mean its reality, I would be really pissed, non violent but pissed. Did I miss something, is it that the Obama folks would get rowdy even if Obama won. Confused.

[cheforacle]

I agree. We should spend less time getting pissed about perceived slights like this and real problems such as global warming, poverty, lack of health insurance, etc. Its more constructive.